Política penal relativa aos crimes contra a vida humana no anteprojeto do Código Penal Espanhol de 1992

Abstract

Crimes against independent human life possess a fundamental dogmatic and criminal policy function, since they project the ideological background underlying the entire Penal Code, especially regarding the effectiveness of the holder's consent. The criminal policy criteria structuring the penal protection of independent human life in the 1992 Spanish Draft Penal Code are analyzed, examining the disappearance of parricide and infanticide as autonomous figures, the suppression of premeditation and catastrophic means as qualifying circumstances of murder, the broadening of the concept of treachery, the new regulation of participation and executive assistance to suicide, and the typification of consented euthanasia. It is concluded that the suppression of parricide and infanticide is correct, that the broadening of treachery denatures its true meaning, and that the regulation of consented euthanasia is flawed by timidity, unconvincing from a criminal policy standpoint.